Letter: Named for local landowner'

Friday

This letter is a response to a recent article by the Middleton Stream Team about the past leisure activities on the Ipswich River.

To the editor,

I read with interest the article by the Stream Team about activities on the Ipswich River, past and present. It's interesting to consider how former residents used the river for leisure.

There were a couple of references to a curve in the river known as King's Pool. Though the article stated, "The origin of the name like most has disappeared with time", that is simply not so.

I am in possession of a map from an atlas published in approximately 1879, which is detailed with the names of the land-owning families of that day, as well as markings for various commercial and civic locations throughout Middleton, including the "soap factory", the "knife factory", cemeteries, and the Middleton post office.

Many familiar surnames show up on the map" — Esty, Richardson, Peabody, Stiles. And adjacent to a bend in the river is a dot marked "A. King". The "Pool" was no doubt named for a local landowner. What's lost to the ages is how he may have felt about the many swimmers leaping into the Ipswich beyond his property.